Flash Animations on the Web

Another late entry, school, playoffs, bowling are slowing me down :-) This was for Jan 10th.

Flash animations are one of the most useful things we can find on the web, in my humble opinion.

I am talking for science but I am sure it can apply to other subjects (math, social studies). For teaching chemistry, animations are very instructional since it can model what is happening at the particle level. The animations can be used to show the process of solvation or bond formation. It can help in visualizing what effects temperature changes have on particle motion. Students can see an animation and come up with relationships before discussion on a topic is begun.

An easy way I ran across to finding flash animations is the following:

Go to Google.com to do a search (may work on other search engines, have not tried it though)

Enter : filetype:swf (swf is extension for published flash animations) the leave a blank space

then enter what you looking for in quotes and click Search

For example: filetype:swf "bonding" (will bring up flash animations dealing with bonding)

You can then save the links for use later or right click.

So go out there and try it out :-)

SMART Notebook : Great Capture Software

Got distracted by Cowboys Game :-) This was for a Jan 9th posting

SMART Tech

I really enjoy using Smart Notebook in my classroom. First, I need to mention, you need to have a Smart Board or another Smart product to use Notebook. The nice thing is that if anyone at your school has a Smart product anyone at the school can download and use Notebook, both at school and at home.

I know that Notebook can be used for so many other things but I am currently using it to record my complete lectures for my chemistry classes (check out my channels on Vimeo, previous blog post). Notebook allows capture of anything displayed on Smartboard, like PowerPoints, along with anything you write on it. But that only provides visuals of the notes, by attaching a wireless microphone, ~$200, you can also provide the audio portion to have the complete lecture. It can be any microphone but if you want to write on SmartBoard and interact with students its useful to have wireless. This is very handy since it will provide students with a "replay" of the lecture if they forget something or for any students that were absent.

Now, a SmartBoard is not needed. You can use it just as a screen capture of your monitor. I have used it to make instructional videos. An example of creating a motion guide for Flash instructional video is shown below, I was trying to show a colleague how to use Flash (no audio)

Curriki - Open Source Educational Resources

Curriki provides a lot of free resources which can be modified to your needs. It has resources for lots of different subjects and grade levels.

I found out about it from one of Christopher Dawson's posts. I will allow Curriki to explain what it is:

Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them. Our name is a play on the combination of 'curriculum' and 'wiki' which is the technology we're using to make education universally accessible.

I figured they could explain it better :-)

I am really enjoying the available free chemistry book (and activities). Currently I am going through it so I can figure out how to use it next year.

I am new to this site so I normally would have waited before I posted this but a colleague mentioned how useful it was for Language Arts. He enjoyed one resource in particular which is for Language Arts and Social Studies

So go visit the site and see what you can find :-)

The Journal : Free Subscription and Website

Gotta make this fast, the Big Game is today. Go Longhorns! :-)

T.H.E. Journal is a great resource for teachers to learn about the newest technology available.

http://thejournal.com/Home.aspx

I first came across The Journal several years at the T.C.E.A. conference. They allow teachers to sign up for free subscriptions. It's till printed but now they have it all on the web but I still really enjoy the paper version :-)

The things I really enjoy are the updates on newest technology, updates on grants available for teachers/schools and the free available Webinars.

This magazine and its associated websites is a great set of resources, so go check them out.

BrightKite, My Favorite Social Network

All caught up.....Today's update :-)

http://brightkite.com/people/EfrenR

As stated above, brightkite is my favorite social network. Its a great way to share info with your friends, like Twitter, but it is location based. You can check in at different places so your friends know your location. The things I really like is that your comments are geotagged so if others check in at that same location they can find out what has happened there before. The other thing is that brightkite allows you to post photos, which Twitter does not, and those photos are geotagged as well. The nice thing about this ability is that your updates can be shared with Twitter, Facebook and Flickr and they will all be location based.

Example of shared photo from brightkite to flickr, tagged from Region One, during PD

Twitter as an Educator Resource

Still catching up....

This was for my Jan 5th update

http://twitter.com/EfrenR

I use Twitter as an Awesome educator resource! Its a great place to find and follow some great teachers that are actually interested in teaching and using technology. A lot of the technology I use today are based on suggestions that I have run across in Twitter. Besides educators, I follow educational technologists, entertainers (Weird Al!), Google feeds and my friends. So Twitter is a great way to keep in touch, but I see it more as my personal resource, its a place for new ideas and approaches to education. A lot of people refer to Twitter as a PLN, Personal Learning Network, since you can ask questions and a lot of times someone in your network will answer you. :-)

Vimeo for Video Sharing

Sorry, been out a few days sick, so now I need to catch up :-)

This was my planned Jan 4th entry

http://www.vimeo.com/user728757

Vimeo is a great video sharing site I discovered after Google stopped using Google Video. I like its different sharing options, especially the Channels. I am currently sharing my chemistry lectures to my different classes through their specific channel. Its free but I paid the $60 for the whole year so students can download the original WMV files, instead of the converted Flash video, for better quality (still need to make versions playable on iPods/iTouch). I like that it provides Stats for the week to see if students are visiting the videos. I also used it last year on the students' Rice trip for a blog about their experiences. I have included an example below.

ChemSketch for Molecular Modeling on PC

Day 3, 3rd post, so far doing ok :-) Just wondering if I have 365 of these to share ;-)

http://www.acdlabs.com/download/

Want to share one of my all time favorite FREE programs I have used for years in my chemistry classes, its up to version 12. ChemSketch!

I ran across this free program, for educators, years ago, I think version 4 and have enjoyed using it ever since then. Its an easy way to copy paste stick figure versions of covalent compounds when in ChemSketch but the best part is the 3D viewer. It is very useful in showing molecular geometries along with angles (some angles are a little off but again FREE). This newest version along with version 11 allows you to create animated gifs of the 3D structures which can easily be incorporated into PowerPoints for discussion of molecular geometries. The newest and awesome aspect I have just recently discovered is their incorporation into Google Docs Presentation file type. Example below: ChemSketch example and 3D animated gif examples (very quick test I made, so forgive me)

Google Docs for Sharing and Collaboration

Figured I would get an early start so I would not forget :-)

Something that has been around for a while already and have heard quite a few teachers on Twitter talk about it is Google Docs. It contains its own versions of "Word", "Excel", and "PowerPoint."

Its a great way to collaborate with others without having to pass files back and forth. People can collaborate on files all online! This is great for group projects and you can easily tell who did what and when. You can also go back to a previous version in case someone made a mistake.

I like the sharing part since I can use it in class as a way to turn in class assignments and I can tell who did what. This is a great way to make sure all students are part of a group assignment. I am also going to have lab reports turned in this way. No more paper! I have created a template called Chemistry Lab Report, Search Templates, that students can use. The template will insure that students don't forget key items from the report.

Try it out! By the way, I do enjoy Google products since they are FREE.

iGoogle for RSS Feeds to Keep up to Date

I currently use iGoogle to keep up with some of the new technology stories. This allows me to quickly glance at some of the current stories. Some of these even provide info on getting into some of the betas being tested.

Once you go to Google, click on the iGoogle at the top right, you will need to sign in so make sure you have a GMail or Google account. Starting adding stuff to your iGoogle. The nice thing is that you can access this from any computer with a browser and internet connection. I like putting my bookmarks here so I can access them anywhere :-) Also, you can click on the drop down on the Tabs, on the left side column, to separate your material. I have Home, Other Links, Tech and Comics. Too add the RSS feeds, click on Add stuff on right, below the search box, click Add feed or gadget, bottom of left column, and enter the web address of the website you want to keep up with. Here are some of the ones I follow.

http://news.cnet.com/8300-13845_3-58.html

http://www.techmeme.com/

http://education.zdnet.com/

http://edte.ch/blog

http://www.techcrunch.com/

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

Starting Something New

I have noticed on Twitter that other teachers mention their Blog or their 365 something or the other and I have wanted to try something new so I figured I would try this out :-)

I will use this Blog to mention anything that I find useful or any interesting tidbit I run across and will put out there (here) to share.

I will try to do one each day.... Let's see how long I can do it :-)

Have a Great Year!!